City approves sweeping Oregon Zoo transformation plan

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The Oregon Zoo secured land-use approval for a decade’s worth of projects that promise to transform nearly 40 percent of the zoo property over the coming year.

The zoo, a division of the Metro regional government, operates under a conditional-use permit from the city. Every decade, the zoo updates its master plan and applies for city permission to carry it out.

Projects include moving the zoo train and installing a road around the south and east sides of the grounds to accommodate construction traffic, land-use approval for the expanded elephants habitat, a new California condor habitat, conservation education facility and updates to habitats for the zoo’s polar bears, primates and rhinos.

The city signed off on the plan Jan. 28. The decision allows work to proceed on a full complement of projects authorized when Portland-area voters approved a $125 million bond in 2008.